Pictured: Zoo keeper rescued after sinking up to her waist in mud... trying to save a seagull

A seagull stuck in the mud sparked a full-scale emergency when its would-be rescuer ended up sinking and needed rescue herself.

Two fire engines, 12 firefighters and paramedics were on standby to help the zoo keeper who had suffered the same fate as the stricken gull and became stuck in the thigh-deep mud.

The keeper, from Newquay Zoo, in Cornwall had waded into the empty, dredged Trenance Boating Lake in a bid to rescue the bird without realising how treacherous the mud was.

A zoo keeper was trapped in the Trenance Boating Lake in Cornwall after she attempted to rescue a seagull, without realising how treacherous the mud was

A member of the public had alerted the RSPCA to the plight of the gull but they were unable to help and Newquay Zoo decided to step in - quite literally.

Scott Brown, crew manager at Newquay Fire Station, said that the keeper was attempting to retrieve the bird.

He said: 'Exactly the same thing happened to her as the seagull.

'She went in herself and because the boating lake has just been emptied and dredged she got stuck thigh-deep in mud.

Two fire engines, 12 crew members, and paramedics were on standby to help the would-be rescuer

'Initially she was stuck with one leg and then the second and started sinking,' he saidShe wasn't injured, she was compos mentis.

'She was quite embarrassed by the situation - she had a few colleagues come down with cameras.

A fire engine from Newquay, and one from nearby St Column attended and the crew requested that a special inflatable rescue path was brought from Bodkin, about 20 miles away but decided they had to act fast as the woman was sinking further.

Mr Brown said: 'There was a makeshift sort of a ladder platform which we made with a ladder and some salvage sheets